Square Wave Anodic Stripping Voltammetry for Localized Detection of Mn 2+ in Li-Ion Battery Environments

Abstract

Li-ion batteries that incorporate manganese present several advantages, including low cost and low toxicity. However, these batteries often suffer from dissolution of manganese into the electrolyte solution, severely impeding battery performance. This work describes the quantitative detection of Mn 2+ ions in battery relevant environment i.e. non-aqueous electrolyte within an inert atmosphere. To this end, an electrochemical probe was fabricated using electrochemical deposition of a Hg cap onto a 25 μ m Pt disk microelectrode. The Pt/Hg microelectrode was fully characterized by optical microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, scanning electrochemical microscopy. Using square wave anodic stripping voltammetry to overcome reproducibility issues with classical linear sweep anodic stripping voltammetry, Mn 2+ was quantified in non-aqueous solution with a limit of detection of 14 μ M. Finally, using this detection scheme, the trapping ability of aza-15-crown-5 ether and dilithium iminodiacetate was investigated.